United States v. Leonard Hill

835 F.3d 796, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15910, 2016 WL 4501681
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedAugust 29, 2016
Docket15-3350
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 835 F.3d 796 (United States v. Leonard Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Leonard Hill, 835 F.3d 796, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15910, 2016 WL 4501681 (8th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted appellant-defendant Leonard Hill of being a felon in possession of ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(e). On appeal, Hill challenges his conviction and the district court’s 1 denial of his renewed motion for acquittal. Hill argues: (1) the government *798 constructively amended the indictment; (2) the government failed to establish the ammunition was in or affecting interstate commerce; and (3) the de minimis connection to interstate commerce is insufficient to satisfy the Commerce Clause. We affirm the district court.

I.

In the early morning hours of July 10, 2014, St. Paul police responded to reports of gunfire outside of Willard’s Bar in St. Paul, Minnesota. While police investigated the area, they arrested and frisked Hill. As a result of the frisk, police seized twenty-three rounds of Federal brand 9-millime-ter Luger ammunition from Hill.

A grand jury indicted Hill on August 18, 2014, charging him with one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(e). Specifically the indictment stated that Hill “did knowingly possess, in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, ammunition, as defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section .921(17)(A), that is, 23 live rounds of Federal brand 9-millimeter Luger ammunition, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1).”

Hill pled guilty on September. 26, 2014. Two months later, however, he moved to withdraw his plea. The district court granted Hill’s motion and he proceeded to trial. Before trial, Hill stipulated that he knowingly possessed ammunition and was a convicted felon. Therefore, the only remaining issue at trial was whether Hill’s possession of the ammunition was in or affecting interstate commerce.

At trial, the government presented expert testimony from Steve Rodgers, the product safety manager and fifteen-year employee for Vista Outdoor, the parent company of Federal Cartridge Ammunition. In his examination of the ammunition, Rodgers randomly disassembled two of the twenty-three rounds seized from Hill and separated them into the four major components that form a round of ammunition: (1) the primer, (2) the case, (3) the propellent powder, and (4) the bullet. Rodgers dated the ammunition as being no older than 2011 and after discussing the manufacturing origin of each component, Rodgers determined that three out of the four components — including the primer, case, and bullet — were all manufactured by Federal Cartridge in Minnesota.

Rodgers concluded that the propellent powder was manufactured outside of Minnesota. To justify his conclusion, Rodgers testified that Federal Cartridge does not manufacture its own propellent powder but instead purchases 95% of it from two domestic sources — located in St. Marks, Florida, or Radford, Virginia — and the remaining 5% from international sources. Further, Rodgers opined that the propellent powder from the two rounds of ammunition he disassembled derived from St. Marks, Florida, specifically because he recognized the propellent powder was “ball powder,” which is a unique manufacturing process specific to Federal Cartridge’s supplier in St. Marks. Finally Rodgers testified that the remaining twenty-one rounds were identical to the two rounds he had randomly disassembled and therefore his testimony applied to those rounds as well.

At the close of the government’s case, Hill moved for a judgment of acquittal which the district judge denied. The jury returned a guilty verdict. On August 13, 2015, Hill filed a renewed motion for judgment of acquittal, which the district court again denied. On October 15, 2015, the district court sentenced Hill to 192- *799 months’ imprisonment. Hill timely filed this appeal.

II.

Hill makes thr.ee arguments on appeal. He first argues the government constructively amended the indictment by presenting evidence at trial of how the individual components of ammunition were in or affecting interstate commerce rather than the ammunition as a whole. Second, the district court should have granted Hill’s motion for acquittal because the government failed to establish the propellent powder component was manufactured outside of Minnesota at the time Federal Cartridge manufactured the ammunition seized from Hill — which is anywhere between 2011 and the date law enforcement seized the ammunition from Hill. Lastly, even if the propellent powder was in or affecting interstate commerce, this de min-imis connection to interstate commerce is insufficient to satisfy the Commerce Clause.

A.

We review de novo whether a constructive amendment to the indictment occurred. United States v. Renner, 648 F.3d 680, 686 (8th Cir. 2011). Hill argues the government created a fatal constructive amendment to the indictment because it listed ammunition as a whole as being in or affecting interstate commerce instead of the individual components, which is what the government presented evidence on at trial. We disagree.

“A constructive amendment occurs when the essential elements of the offense as charged in the indictment are altered in such a manner — often- through the evidence presented at trial or the jury instructions — that the jury is allowed to convict the defendant of an offense different from or in addition to the offenses charged in the indictment.” United States v. Johnson, 719 F.3d 660, 668 (8th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Whirlwind Soldier, 499 F.3d 862, 870 (8th Cir. 2007)). In evaluating a constructive amendment claim, this court “considers] whether the admission of evidence or the jury instructions created a ‘substantial likelihood’ that the defendant was convicted of an uncharged offense.” Id.

The government did not create a fatal constructive amendment to the indictment because the ammunition components were necessarily included in the indictment by statutory definition of the term ammunition. The indictment provides that Hill knowingly possessed ammunition “as defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 921(17)(A)[.]” Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(17)(A), ammunition is defined as “ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or propellent powder designed for use in any firearm.” Accordingly, the evidence presented at trial did not create a “substantial likelihood” that Hill was convicted of an uncharged offense because the individual components of ammunition were necessarily included in the indictment language. The government therefore did not constructively amend the indictment.

B.

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Bluebook (online)
835 F.3d 796, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15910, 2016 WL 4501681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-leonard-hill-ca8-2016.